No evidence of 'Milly leak for money', IPCC says

NO evidence has been found that a Surrey Police officer accepted money for giving information to a journalist during the Milly Dowler investigation, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

NO evidence has been found that a Surrey Police officer accepted money for giving information to a journalist during the Milly Dowler investigation, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The matter was referred to the IPCC by Surrey Police in August last year after the force received information from three newspaper reporters that they were going to publish the allegations relating to Operation Ruby - the investigation into the disappearance of the Walton schoolgirl in 2002.

According to Surrey Police, the allegations had come from a "disgruntled former officer".

IPCC Commissioner Mike Franklin said: "The allegations that a Surrey Police officer provided information to journalists during Operation Ruby, and may have been paid for doing so, can only have added to the terrible loss endured by Milly Dowler’s family.

"Surrey Police, quite rightly, came under a great deal of scrutiny over this issue - the allegations are serious and required independent examination.

"I hope our finding that there was no substantive or factual evidence to support the allegations will provide some reassurance to the Dowler family on this issue at least.

"It appears from this investigation that unsubstantiated information, perhaps not surprisingly, quickly gained currency in a climate where the relationships between the police and the media are under intense public scrutiny.

"A police officer was criminally interviewed and remained under suspicion for some months, as our investigators sought to establish the facts."

Mr Franklin said no further action would be taken.

A spokesman for Surrey Police said the former officer who made the allegations had resigned from the force pending a misconduct hearing following a criminal conviction at Aldershot Magistrates' Court in 2010.

The spokesman said: "He provided an account of the 2002 events in a phone call to an MP’s office in which he made a number of false allegations including that the officer in question had met a News of the World reporter at a social function and passed on confidential information around the Milly Dowler case. The MP then passed that claim on to journalists.

"The former officer did not provide the IPCC investigation with any specific details or evidence to support his allegations and the commissioner’s report has described the information as ‘supposition and rumour’ at best."

Surrey Police previously took disciplinary action in 2002 against the officer now cleared of accepting money from journalists in return for information.

In that instance, the force said it became apparent that the officer had provided some confidential details about the Milly investigation to a retired police officer friend, who was not a journalist.

He was immediately and permanently removed from the inquiry and from the Major Crime Investigation Team.